Send a Mother's Day greeting with iOS's Cards app

Mother’s Day is May 12th. That’s a Sunday. You don’t have that much time to get your act together. Luckily, Apple’s Cards app for iOS can help you send your mom a lovely photo card, printed on 100 percent cotton paper, using that fancy shmancy letterpress technique you love so much.

Here’s a quick walkthrough.

Launch Cards—and remember, though the app was once iPhone and iPod touch-only, it now works on the iPad, too. Cards offers numerous templates, but you’ll probably want to start with the flower tab for Mother’s Day. There are 34 templates to choose among. Find one you like, and tap on it.

As it turns out, Cards doesn’t think you should send mom a picture of some other woman and child. You’re prompted to add your own photo instead. Tap on the empty photo spot, and either snap a photo with your iOS device’s camera, or choose one from your library.

If you choose a photo that’s too small or low resolution, Cards will warn you.

Once you find the right photo, you can pinch to zoom it and drag it around to get just the right look you’re after, and then tap Apply at the upper right.

You can also tap on any text on the card to edit it.

Next, tap the Inside tab to customize, surprisingly enough, the inside of your card. You can leave Apple’s stock messages, but if you have siblings and they do the same thing, Mom’s going to get mighty suspicious.

Finally, it’s time to address your card. Provide your address and your mom’s, and Cards takes care of the rest. It costs $3 to mail the card in the U.S., and $5 to send it anywhere else. Once you tap the price, it turns into a Buy Now button. Log in with your Apple ID if prompted, and you’ll be on your way.

If you’re shipping to a U.S. address that Cards can recognize, you’ll get a push notification on the day the card is out for delivery. In my experience, that feature’s reliability gets a little spotty.

Lex Friedman Senior Contributor

Lex uses a MacBook Pro, an iPhone 5, an iPad mini, a Kindle 3, a TiVo HD, and a treadmill desk, and loves them all. His latest book, a children's book parody for adults, is called "The Kid in the Crib." Lex lives in New Jersey with his wife and three young kids. More by Lex Friedman